Fabian Espindola's MLS Goal Celebration Gone Wrong

In hindsight, Fabian Espindola probably wishes that he had waited another minute to start celebrating.

The Real Salt Lake striker is out for at least a month, thanks to a severe ankle sprain suffered when he did a backflip after a goal on Saturday.

Check that: A disallowed goal.

Weird Sports Injuries

Talk about adding insult to injury: Real Salt Lake forward Fabian Espindola thought he had scored a goal in a Sept. 6 game, so he launched into a celebratory backflip. But Espindola landed wrong, severely spraining his ankle - and then an offside call wiped out the goal.

MLS

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Espindola thought he had connected on a header against Los Angeles, which would have given RSL a 1-0 lead. But the head referee consulted with the linesman and ruled that Espindola was offside, thus negating the goal.

The injury, unfortunately for Espindola, could not be reversed.

"I'm embarrassed," said Espindola, who celebrated goals with a flip since his days as a youth player in Argentina. "I'm never going to do that again. I don't know what happened. I've done it a million times. If I would have known I never would have done it."

Uh ... no kidding.In case seeing such things interests you, the ill-fated Espindola backflip can be seen at about the 45-second mark of the game's video recap below (h/t: SportsCracklePop):

If there's a silver lining in this tale of idiocy, it's that Espindola's sprained ankle is an upgrade over the fractured leg that Real Salt Lake originally thought he had suffered. Even so, the whole situation is ... oh, what's the phrase I'm looking for ...

"It's a little mind-boggling," (RSL coach Jason) Kreis said.

Yeah, that's the one.

What happened to ripping your shirt off, or pretending you're an airplane and sliding headfirst out to midfield? Those are entertaining -- and safe -- celebrations that don't, for example, put your legs at risk of folding awkwardly underneath you.

Of course, all those moments of jubilation are secondary to MAKING SURE YOU ACTUALLY SCORED! Otherwise, you're just a doofus doing backflips for no reason.

(h/t: The Beautiful Game)